by Marcy Jacks
And yes, Dravick was no fool. He knew about Kraigan’s lust for the human brunet.
Dravick found Jason in the crowd, standing beside his red-haired sister, his eyes wide and his face pale. He seemed to be having difficulty keeping his eyes from wandering to Kraigan.
The chatter lasted far too long. “Silence!”
His voice carried, and echoed. The giant crowd immediately quieted, but with so many people, even their collective breathing seemed loud, and Dravick had to keep his voice raised.
“My mate will point out the men who attacked him. If these males are innocent, they will be set free, and if not...” Dravick reached to the side. Novik, the good man that he was, presented Dravick with a sword. The king’s sword. The one used to initiate new warriors into his group or execute traitors to his clan.
The hilt was made of gold and encrusted with red rubies and diamonds, representing the blood and soul. Any new warrior would offer their souls and blood to serve and protect the nest, and traitors would spill their blood and relinquish their souls upon their deaths.
Three of the men started to cry now. The remaining two shook their heads. All were gagged.
Aaron could not seem to take his eyes away from them.
Dravick touched his shoulder again. Aaron nearly jumped. His blackened eyes were wide.
Dravick did not know what to do, other than to continue to be gentle. “You described three men. Were there any more?”
Aaron shook his head.
Two were innocent then. Or all five were if these were not the right men at all. Dravick would not know until Aaron pointed his finger. However, one of them did have scratches down the side of his face, just where Aaron had said they would be. Dravick was convinced of that man’s guilt.
Aaron seemed to be hesitating, however.
Dravick wet his lips. “I want you to know that, whatever the fate of these men, it is not your fault. If they are guilty, then they will be punished. If they are innocent, then you must tell me so I can free them.”
Aaron stared at him for a long time, his blue eyes swimming before he bit his lips together, nodding.
Dravick’s heart pounded heavily as Aaron approached the first male, the dragon who was damn near chewing through his gag and sweating profusely. His long blond hair stuck in strands to his face and neck, his nostrils flaring in a panic. Aaron pointed at him, and the accused squeaked.
“Not him,” he said. “He wasn’t there.”
Dravick allowed that to sink in. Then he nodded and stepped forward.
The accused held perfectly still while Dravick moved behind him and used his sword to cut away his bonds.
“Get to your feet and return to your family,” he said.
The man scrambled. He rushed to a crying female, who met him with open arms.
Aaron pointed out another innocent party, and Dravick also cut him loose. This man fell into the arms of a larger male, who appeared ready to start weeping when his lover had been freed.
“Any more?” Dravick asked.
Aaron looked to all three men then shook his head. “No. These men did it.”
Dravick was slightly shocked at that as he stared down at the accused. He turned his head. Even Novik’s eyes were wide. The man had found all three attackers already? Well, he’d brought in two spares by mistake, but still, it was unheard of that all three could be found so quickly. Dravick had expected only one of these men to be guilty and then to have to continue the search. Hell, he’d expected the attackers would have fled the nest entirely.
They’d all stayed. The stupid, idiot fools.
There were shouts in the crowd. “Liar! Liar!”
“The human lies!”
“My son would do no such thing!”
“Silence!” Dravick shouted, glaring at the crowd as Aaron made his way back to Dravick’s side. The man half hid behind him, searching for comfort wherever he could take it, no doubt.
Dravick did not blame him.
There were a dozen or so protestors. A few sobbing women, one shorter, fatter woman who held a handkerchief to her wet face.
The family of the accused.
Dravick had no mercy for them. He sucked in a deep breath. “By law, they have attacked the mate of your king. Their punishment is immediate death.”
The women squeaked, cried some more. The men shook their heads, a panic in their eyes now that it looked as though they were about to lose their sons, their brothers, or their friends.
Dravick did not care. Only one man sobbed through his gag. The others glared, at Dravick and at Aaron, as though Aaron was the one to bring this on them, as if he was somehow at fault for their current predicament.
Unacceptable. Dravick would cut their heads off and drink their blood from their skulls in front of their mothers just to make his point that no one ever touched Aaron. No one!
A soft tug at his sleeve pulled Dravick out of his bloodthirsty, vengeful thoughts. He looked down.
Aaron was looking back up at him, his eyes soft and imploring as he shook his head. “Don’t do that,” he said. “Don’t kill them.”
Dravick blinked then realized that he’d spoken out loud.
He didn’t care. Let these fools know about his wrath. That was the entire point.
“They need to die for their crimes.”
“If you kill them, you will just create an anxiety in your nest,” Aaron said. “Their families will never forgive you, or me.”
Dravick looked up. The family did seem rather nervous in that moment. Some of them even looked hopeful now that the victim was speaking on behalf of the men who had attacked him.
Others still looked angry, furious. They shook with it, and Dravick knew in that moment that some of these people would not be satisfied, regardless of whether or not Dravick spared them.
They had still been accused, and that was enough. Some minds would never be changed.
Still, Dravick wanted no more negative attention than possible following Aaron for the rest of his life.
“Very well,” Dravick said. “Their lives will be spared, but I will still have blood. The removal of their right hands.”
There, that would be enough. For now. It would certainly ensure that these men never forgot about what they’d done to Aaron and prevent any of them from grabbing another person and doing what they’d done.
Dravick had no personal experience with this, but it was his understanding that life was difficult with only a single hand to work with.
The family still cried, and some of the men continued to scowl and shout. Dravick had them removed from the room as Novik untied the first man and forced his arms out, tying his right hand down to a wooden block. The one that was used whenever criminals did need to have a hand or two removed. The right hand was usually the one chosen for chopping, as it was the dominant hand.
Of course, this practice hadn’t seen use since the time of his uncle. Dravick felt no guilt at putting it to good use again.
The male struggled, but there was no getting away for him.
“Aaron, you may go and stand with Adam if you wish.”
Adam was in a corner of the room, away from the other humans and dragons. Blue was with him, both of them huddling together and hiding their faces from what they would have to see.
Aaron looked at them and then back at Dravick, as though unsure.
Dravick pressed on. “You do not need to see this. Go with your friends.”
Even Jason and Athy in the crowd were looking away. The red-haired woman was even putting her fingers in her ears.
Aaron nodded, and he rushed over to where Adam and Blue stood. He was immediately welcomed into their group, the lot of them not wanting to see what Dravick was about to do.
He waited until he was certain his mate would not see anything. The man’s scream would ensure that he would hear everything, however. No amount of covering his ears would prevent that.
Dravick would soothe away any fears brought on by that later. Now, he
needed to hand out his punishments.
He raised the sword high and brought it down hard. The scream sounded as though it had shredded the man’s throat as his hand plopped onto the floor.
Chapter Twelve
Aaron did not want to be around after that. Though he’d covered his ears, he could still hear the men screaming in pain as their hands were lopped off. He supposed they got off easy, though. Dravick had wanted to kill the lot of them, and now they were missing only one hand each.
Well, maybe that wasn’t getting off completely easy. Now they had to find a way of living with only one hand, probably becoming burdens on their families, and Dravick had promised him that, after they’d been cleared from the healer, they would be spending at least a year in the pits.
Aaron was fine with that. If anything, he’d felt his revenge had been gained by the removal of their hands, but another year for them to sit around and think about what they’d done in a hole in the ground seemed pretty good. Also, Dravick had promised him that, if he’d needed more time, all he had to do was ask and all three men would spend more time in that pit.
Aaron just hadn’t wanted any blood on his hands. Well, not death blood, anyway. Those men had hurt him, and he hated them for it, but he didn’t want to wake up in the night, sweating and terrified because he felt their deaths were on him or looking over his shoulder wondering if any of their families would retaliate.
They still might. The parents had seemed particularly angry, even if they hadn’t been allowed to say anything with Dravick around.
That had been days ago, and Aaron was still spending time in Dravick’s room. It was strange. His things had been collected, the little figures he enjoyed carving, his journal and his inks, and it had all been brought here.
He didn't own many personal possessions, so it was fairly easy to fit it all inside of Dravick’s rooms. Dravick had also commissioned Aaron to have new clothing.
The fitting had been somewhat awkward. Aaron usually purchased old, used clothes from a vendor. They had never fit too well, except for the uniform he wore to serve Dravick’s table, that is.
Some of the clothes were ready already. The tailor was working quickly. Dravick must have been paying him extra for that.
The silks and the robes for sleeping were divine. Aaron never wanted to change out of them, but then Dravick had presented Aaron with new boots and shoes and other footwear that he loved to lace up. Putting those on and walking around felt like he was walking bare foot but with the extra protective padding of the leather.
As much as he enjoyed a good spoiling, however, he didn’t know what to do with himself for the most part. He was no longer serving Dravick’s table. Instead, someone else was serving Dravick, and Aaron had to be jealous of that person who leaned down and poured the wine.
All the while, even through his jealousy, he also felt uncomfortable. He should not be sitting at the high table being served. He should be on his feet helping.
Dravick seemed most proud to be showing Aaron off, his new mate, but Aaron could only watch the way Jason and Soren and the others moved quickly through the tables below. More than once Aaron wanted to call out to them that they were running out of wine and needed to refill the large pitcher or that something was about to tip over from their trolley. He also wanted to get up and take the pitcher from the servant who refilled Dravick’s drinks and do it himself.
He didn’t do any of that because he was no longer expected to work. Dravick had said that Aaron was his mate, and apparently, the man had meant it. Immediately after the cutting off of the hands incident, Dravick announced a new law that would put any human in the dragon’s nest on equal footing with the dragons. There had been many shocked cries from the dragon people when that had been announced, but the human population had seemed excited enough.
There would be trouble because of that. Aaron could already see it stirring, could already picture another violent act of aggression against some poor human who thought to socialize too much with a dragon.
The fact that Kraigan constantly asked the servant to bring Jason up to their table so that Jason would have to be the one to refill his goblet did not bode well for him.
Kraigan always had a sarcastic smile on his face when he forced this extra work on Jason. If anything, his smile appeared mean, but Jason always glowered at him, refilled his goblet, and muttered about how Kraigan was supposed to be his servant, and not the other way around, before turning around and leaving.
Aaron just hoped those two knew what they were doing.
After dinner, Aaron collected the empty plates within immediate reach, his own, Novik’s, and Dravick’s and stacked them, simply out of habit to make things easier for the server who would be collecting them. Dravick gently took his wrist and stopped him.
“No, love. You don’t need to do that.”
Aaron shivered from the warm touch and from being called “love.”
He absolutely adored it whenever Dravick said that he loved him, and Aaron immediately forgot about all of the dirty plates.
Novik followed Dravick for a time, both of them going over the plans for their new laws and making arrangements for when the backlash did eventually happen.
Aaron knew that a law alone was not enough to sway a people, even in a nest that contained less than a thousand humans and dragons. There would be more violence, and there would be more judgments.
Aaron’s only hope was that there would be no deaths.
Novik bid them good-bye when they made it to Dravick’s—their—rooms. Aaron was still becoming used to the fact that he was sleeping in here now.
But that didn’t stop him from adoring Dravick’s large, comfortable bed. He loved this bed, and that was the first place he went to, flopping himself down onto it when Dravick shut the door.
“Do you need to sleep?” Dravick asked.
Aaron turned his head and smiled at the man. Dravick had been nothing but considerate since Aaron had come into his room, though Aaron knew it couldn’t last. Aaron would have to be fine one day, would have to get up and move around more than he was and stop hiding.
If he didn’t, it would be a one-sided love because no love survived that sort of selfishness. Dravick would eventually grow frustrated, angry, and then later resentful.
Even though he showed no signs of that happening now, Aaron felt well enough to do something, to spend time with Dravick.
He sat up. “Actually, I was wondering if I could draw a bath for us?” he asked. “I know it’s still early in the evening, but I thought it would be good for us to have one together.”
Aaron had been having his baths alone ever since coming here. Sharing a bath when his wounds were still open and flaring had not been a good idea, but his back and thighs were better now. They still hurt, and he still felt stiff, but Aaron thought it was time. And he was becoming lonely in the water.
Dravick’s eyes widened, as if such a thought would not have occurred to him on his own. Aaron half expected the man to shake his head, to tell Aaron that he need not do such a thing at all because there were servants to do that, but he didn’t.
“That sounds...nice,” he said, swallowing hard. Aaron could see the man’s Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat.
Aaron smiled, getting to his feet and padding his way into their bathing room.
That firm, yet heated touch Dravick had given him in the great hall, skin to skin...it hadn’t been the first time that Dravick had touched him since the incident that shall not be named, and it was not even the first time that Aaron felt the familiar warm spark sizzle through his body, through his prostate and cock, but it was the first time that Aaron felt as though he wanted to do something about it.
He knew Dravick had followed him, even though the man’s footsteps were silent. He could feel the scorching heat of his stare as Adam bent down and twisted the steel knobs that brought hot water in through the pipe. He played with the knobs, getting the temperature he wanted before plugging the drain and
letting it fill.
He couldn’t recall when he’d last felt this good as he placed bath oils and other herbs into the water, watching the marble tub fill up.
He began to strip.
The soft, moaning noise that came from behind him stopped, and Aaron turned.
Dravick’s eyes were glazed as they stared at him, at his bare back and sides. The man’s cheeks were flushed, and Aaron could swear that he hadn’t seen such a look on Dravick’s face since the day they’d met.
He didn’t look at all disgusted from the scars warping his flesh.
It was pleasing. It brought a swell of pride and emotions he hadn’t thought he would ever feel again. His bruises were gone, he looked healthy once more, and Dravick still found his body to be desirable despite the imperfections left behind.
“Are you going to come in with me?” Aaron asked, folding his tunic out of habit and placing it on a nearby chair. He undid his new leather belt, hooked his thumbs into the waist of his leggings, and then pushed them down.
“Are you certain you want to?”
Aaron’s entire body jerked to a stop. He froze, suddenly unsure of what he was doing. “Yes. Don’t you?” he asked, straightening and pulling his pants back up, covering his wilting dick.
“Of course I want to,” Dravick said quickly, his eyes wide like a panicked animal that thought a meal was about to be taken away.
Aaron couldn’t help but smile again.
“I just wanted to be certain that you were sure of it.”
Aaron didn’t want this hanging over his head for the rest of his life. It was always going to be there, but he didn’t want it to come between him and Dravick. The man had announced to the entire nest that Aaron was his lover, and his mate, and he’d threatened to kill anyone who retaliated against that by hurting him.
Aaron just wanted them to be as they were before all of this happened.
Only he would still spend his nights in these rooms. He’d come to like spending his time here, even if it bored him sometimes.
He pressed himself closer to Dravick’s body. Close enough that their combined heat outdid anything that the hot water produced as it filled the tub, as well as the air, with warm steam.